Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday called on the Supreme Court to step in and order lower courts to limit their rulings to the parties in front of them, tamping down on the explosion of nationwide injunctions that have stymied many of the Trump administration’s policies.
Mr. Pence said the administration will give the justices a chance to make that ruling.
“In the days ahead, our administration will seek opportunities to put this question before the Supreme Court — to ensure that decisions affecting every American are made either by those elected to represent the American people or by the highest court in the land,” the vice president told the Federalist Society.
He said the Trump administration has “faced more nationwide injunctions than the first 40 American presidents — combined.”
For most of the country’s history when lower court judges issued a ruling it applied to the parties in the case. But in recent years judges have blocked policies nationally. That happened to President Obama, when a federal judge in Texas in 2015 halted his expanded deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant parents.
And it’s happened repeatedly to Mr. Trump on issues ranging from sanctuary cities to his travel ban, where the government was ordered to halt policies for the entire country, not just for the plaintiffs in a case.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in a 2017 opinion regarding the legality of the travel ban, noted the increased issuing of universal injunctions and questioned lower courts’ authority on that front.
“This judicial obstruction is unprecedented. Studies show that there is not a single example of a nationwide injunction in the first 175 years of our country,” Mr. Pence said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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